Jonathan Rudd (say 1620 – 1658) was my 10th-great-grandfather, being the father of Mary, wife of the immigrant Thomas Bingham; and thus the great-great-grandfather of Reuben Bingham. He is most famous for the circumstances of his marriage, and indeed his wife has been commemorated even more, although her name remains unknown.
Based on chronology, Jonathan was presumably born in England, but there is no information about his birth or parents. He first appears in records in Hartford, Connecticut in 1640.
Most early records are about fines for misbehavior. He received punishments for attending a drinking party and for “being too intimate with Mary Bronson” (who later married Nicholas Disborough and so is not his wife). By 1643/4, he was in New Haven, CT, where there is a record of him being fined for defective arms, and a court record says “he kept a dirty gun and drank spirits while on guard duty.”
He moved several times around Connecticut, as he appears in various towns’ records. By about 1646 he had settled in Saybrook (now called Old Saybrook), and there apparently lived the remainder of his life.
He is most remembered for his unusual marriage ceremony in the winter of 1646/7. Due to inclement weather, the only person who could be found to perform the marriage was Governor John Winthrop, whose authority however only extended over the Massachusetts colony. So, Winthrop had the wedding party come down to a brook on the boundary, and performed the marriage while standing on the Massachusetts side as Jonathan and his bride stood on the other. The brook was thereafter known as Bride Brook or Bride’s Brook.
The identity of his wife is unknown. There is a tradition that her name was Mary, but no evidence for this has turned up. Mary Metcalf and Mary Burchard have both been proposed as candidates, but contemporary reviews of records have found no support for either of these hypotheses.
Although her name is unknown, the bride has been commemorated in numerous ways with the name Bride:
A commemorative marker with a plaque was erected in 1925.ref
Poetry has been written about the wedding.ref
Jonathan’s estate in Saybrook was inventoried July 1658, so he presumably died not long before then.ref He was probably in his 30s. What summaries I have found of the estate records do not mention a widow, so his wife probably predeceased him.